Localization Best Practices for Your Checkout Page

April 7, 2017 Nima Henry

You’ve probably spent a ton of effort to make your website as appealing as possible to the local demographic. That’s a great step and you should pat yourself on the back for it. Your local customers are probably enjoying a smooth browsing experience.

However, you begin to notice that, despite having all that traffic, there really seems to be no action at the checkout page.

Well, it’s probably because you haven’t applied these set of localization best practices for checkout pages. In fact, you’ve probably been in the dark about these practices. But, it’s never too late and we suggest you get yourself acquainted with them now.

Translation

This might seem a little silly, but, is there a chance that you forgot to translate your checkout page? Well, if your answer is no, we suggest that you check again. The truth is that plenty of companies do end up ignoring the checkout page.

It isn’t surprising considering that checkout pages usually don’t have too much content except for payment process instructions. However, there will be users who would want this to be translated as well. Not doing so creates an incomplete customer experience and might even frustrate the customer.

Translation and beyond

This is something that you’ve probably heard of a thousand times and you’re going to hear it again – localization does not end with translation. There is more to be changed on the checkout page than just the language. For example, the customer will need to see other details such as their currency, date formats, and addresses in their own country format.

The checkout page is the page where you close the sale and if you aren’t doing what’s necessary to simplify this final step, you’re losing it.

Page location

Another mistake that a lot of businesses make is that they redirect the checkout page to the main country website. This is a huge mistake as far as localization goes. Make sure that the checkout page remains within the regional site.

This will help the customer avoid confusion and ensure that he/she completes the purchase. Customers don’t want to be directed to an unfamiliar site all of a sudden and without warning.

Just imagine if you were to buy a product and walk up to the checkout counter only to hear the cashier speak to you in a language you are not familiar with. How would you feel?

Well, expect your local customer to feel the same way.

So, don’t leave your customers in the lurch. Ensure that all their queries on the checkout page are answered in the local language. This could include answers to questions about returns, estimated time of delivery, transaction disputes and shipping charges.

Buying comes first

Imagine if you walked into a store and the salesperson forced you to sign up for a membership before letting you buy stuff. Annoying right? Well, lot of businesses end up doing exactly that on their websites. Customers are often forced to sign up during the checkout process and only then are they allowed to complete the pending transaction.

In fact, this isn’t a problem exclusively related to localized sites. This is something that happens with checkout processes even with primary websites.

This can be highly frustrating for customers who just want to order their product and get done with it. Avoid doing this. Instead, ask them to register after they’ve completed their transaction. The other idea would be to create an automatic registration process with the data you collect during the checkout process.

You’re obviously going to collect key information such as the customer’s name, address, phone number, and email. All you need to do is to present a partially filled up registration form at the end of the transaction and request the customer to fill up the remaining details.

The checkout page is one of the most important pages, this is where the sale/deal is closed. So, no matter what, don’t ignore the checkout page!